Strides of Hope: Dallas Whiterock Marathon

I finished the Dallas Whiterock Marathon on 14th Dec 2008. This is my 5th marathon and second one running with Team Asha and raising funds for Asha. I finished in a time of 4hrs 14mins. Even though this is not a PR, I am still very happy, given the conditions of the day and also my training being sub par.

The day started at 5am. I took the train along with my wife at 6am to reach the marathon start area (American Airlines Center) by 6:45am. The temperature was good but it was way too windy (25+ mph). I met other Asha runners and we were getting ready for the run. There were long lines for the portable restrooms and I almost missed the start.

The race started at 8am and it was great to see 15000+ runners lined up and ready to run. I started off at a steady 10 min/mile pace for the first couple of miles. I was feeling good and did the next 5-6 miles closer to 9 min/mile pace and was feeling great. I saw the Asha volunteers at mile 6 (Asha had a water station) and it felt great to see so many familiar faces cheering for you. I next few miles went by fast. The weather was getting better as I felt it to be less windy. I had to take a potty break at around mile 11 and then I met another Asha runner, Cnu and ran with him for a few miles. I had already started to feel stiffness in my right calf muscle and also my left IT band. I was a little worried as it was a hot day and I had a bad feeling that I might struggle in the last few miles. Cnu wanted to walk a little at mile 14 and I went ahead at my own pace.

I reached mile 15 in about 2:15 which was where I wanted to be, to finish under 4:20. I was already feeling a little tired and seeing more Asha folks at mile 15 gave me a boost. At this point I have already realized that I will not be able to speed up the last 10 miles and have started running ~10 min/mile pace. Also, as the temperature was creeping up, I started to drink Gatorade at every water station in addition to my intake of salt capsules every 45 mins. I reached 20 mile mark in 3:10. I have quite happy with both my timing and the way I felt, tired but not fully drained.

The few miles between 19-22 have some hills, which we have run a few times during training. I just slowed down a little and those hills seemed quite easy even after 3 hours of running. I hardly had to walk for those 3 miles. At around mile 22, I started to feel some pain in near my right ankle and also some stiffness in my left IT band. I was telling myself just to keep moving one step at a time and in another 40 mins or so it will be over with. I started to walk a minute at every water booth and felt good when I reached mile 25. I was amazed to realize that I did mile 25 and 26 in about 9 min/mile pace. In no time, the finish line was in sight and for the last few hundred yards, no matter how beat up I was, I sprinted towards the finish line and had a strong finish. I finished in 4:13:46. I saw many Asha folks at the finish line, including my wife. Even though, this is not my first marathon, it always feels great to finish a daunting distance 26.2miles and especially if it is done for a good cause, to support the less fortunate children.

It was a very hot day to run a marathon and the temperature was 79F when we finished. I have seen many people cramp up and struggle at finish. I think I just caught a break as I was running a little slower and also took plenty electrolytes and salts. The other Asha runners also finished in good times and high spirits. A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped me and many other runners to finish. It is lot of hardwork and it needs to be appreciated a lot. I got a nice complementary massage for my aching legs and my stiff IT band. We had a nice photo session for all the Asha runners and volunteers. We all (30+ people) went to Roti grill and had nice Indian food, before we called it a day.

My first part of the commitment to Asha is complete with running the marathon and now remains the more important part of raising funds for the less fortunate little ones in India. Now that the marathon is over, I am in the process of reaching out to my friends and family to spread word about Asha and raise funds to help them continue the good charity work. I would encourage you to visit my Asha fundraising page and donate and be part of this worthy cause.

Week-12: 9/22-9/28

-Wednesday (9/24): 5.5mi Hill workout @ Prairie Creek elementary school. It was my first time at this place and it had nice long hills which makes it ideal for hill workout. After about 0.8 mile of warm up, I did 5 hill repeats. Each repeat was about 0.37mi with ~60 foot elevation gain.

-Thursday (9/25):6 mile tempo run @ Renner Trail. I did an easier tempo run at an average pace of 9:11 per mile as I did a hill workout the day before. I usually take a rest day between 2 hard workouts as per FIRST training, but this week I could not do it as I skipped running on Monday and Tuesday. My HR stats are here.

-Saturday (9/27): 15 mile long run. I finally was able to join Greg's group (8:30-9:30pace group) for this week's long run. The group was planning to run at an average pace of 9:15 per mile, which is just about what I wanted to do. We started off at Mockingbird DART station and ran toward the Whiterock lake. By about mile 5 we joined the lake and had a great run around most of the lake. I saw our other Team Asha runners, who are running with other pace groups. We took a water break at mile 12 and then finished off well back at the DART station. Our route can be found here. My stats for the run are, avg. pace 9:25 min/mile and Avg.HR=150.

-Sunday (9/28): 24 mile bike ride on Chisholm & Bluebonnet trail. I got on my bike after about 10 days and it felt good. I started from my home and got on the Chisholm trail in couple of miles. It was a nice and long trail when you combine Chisholm and Bluebonnet trail and I could bike about 24 miles in ~1:45. My average speed was less than what I would have liked, due to the frequent breaks at the many places the trail crosses the roads, but other wise it was a nice trail to either bike or run. I am thinking, next time I might bike on the Whiterock creek and lake trails from my home, which would make the round trip about 30 miles.

Vibha's Dream Mile 10K

Wow!! I finished first in overall male category, what a feeling! I have never dreamed of finishing first in any race, even the small local races. Okay, this is a small race with only about 30-40 people in 10K, but still, first is first, right :)

About 10 of Team Asha runners participated in Vibha's 10th Annual Dream Mile 5K/10K race at Whiterock Lake. After spending some 10 minutes trying to find a way to reach start point, I saw a fellow Asha member and finally reached the start. I actually wanted to warm up for about 2-3 miles, but I was actually happy to reach the start line before the race started. My goal was not to run faster than 8:00 pace. The start felt fast and my first mile of 7:22 confirmed it. I tried to slow down a little, but boy it is tough to slow down with all the adrenaline of a race. I was running in good rhythm and miles 2 and 3 were about 7:40 pace. I realized that I was currently second to a lady few seconds ahead of me at the turn point. I had a feeling that if I finish strong, I can even pass that lady, but at the same time I did not want to push too much and remember that this is part of training for a marathon. I still maintained my 7:40 pace for miles 4 and 5, but it was getting tougher and my heart rate was creeping up slowly. In the last mile I have decided not to really sprint and just run my pace. As I approach the finish line, I again could not help but sprint and I almost passed the other lady, but just managed to finish right behind her for overall second position. Wow! and my stop watch read 47:16 and that a PR by a few minutes. Sravanthi ran the 5K in 43:00, he first race and she looked great after the finish. She was very happy to have run a good race herself and more happy for my finish. My HR stats for the race are here.

Vibha did a great job in conducting the race and I got a 1-hr free "Discovery" flight ride over Dallas with Indus Aviation.

Week-9: 9/1-9/7

-Monday (9/1): I did my first run of the week, a 7 mile Tempo run with the middle 5 miles averaging 8:30 pace. I will try to adhere to the FIRST training program which prescribes only 3 quality runs a week and cross training workouts on the other days.

-Tuesday (9/2): An easy 10 mile bike ride on Campion Trail.

-Wednesday (9/3): I had a nice track workout at Ranchview High School. After a easy 1 mile warm up, I did a 4x800m around 3:30 per interval and finished off with a 2 mile cool down. The weather was cool and perfect except for the strong headwind, up to 30mph.

-Thursday (9/4): An easy 10 mile bike ride on Campion Trail.

-Saturday (9/6): I ran on Campion trail to save some time for packing my stuff for my apartment move. I met a friend in the trail and we ran together for the first 10 miles. Miles went by fast as we were chatting and I have averaged ~9:30 for the first 10 miles. I picked up the pace for the last 2.5 miles and I have averaged 9:15 on the whole, which is exactly my target for this long run. It did not feel that hard and I finished by 8:30am before sun intensified.

Week-8 (8/25-8/31)

-Tuesday (8/26): I could not run on Monday evening with our group and ran on Tuesday morning. I was planning to do a 5 mile tempo run with middle 3miles @ 8:00 pace. I started off running faster than I wanted and my first tempo mile was @ 7:24 and second one went in 7:40 and I was so tired I had to take a walk break and by the time I finished 5 miles, I was totally spent. I had a pretty bad day at work feeling tired all day.

-Thursday (8/28): My second quality run of the week was Track workout. I am trying to follow the FIRST training program and today was supposed to be 3x1600m interval training. As I was short of time I did only 2 intervals but could average 7:10 for each mile. It felt much better than Tuesday's tempo run.

-Saturday (8/30): I overslept today and so could not run with DRC. Instead I went our on Campion Trail around 10am (bad idea!). I was planning to do 13 miles @ 9:00 pace. I started of great for the first 5 miles, averaging 9:00 pace. After about an hour,I started to feel the heat (~90F) and had to slow down to 10:00 pace. It was really hot and I was glad to have taken couple of salt caps. I decided to cut short the run to 10 miles (boy, that was a smart choice) and finished with an average of 10:00 pace including the 5 min fuel break in the middle. It felt like heaven when I took a cold shower after reaching home. It was a real tough workout after a really long time.

-Sunday (8/31): I finished of the week with a easy 21 mile bike ride today. It is a great cross training and my muscles feel great. I could only bike once this week and hoping to make it at least 2 bike rides a week.

Week-7 (8/18-8/24)

-Monday (8/18): 4 miles Tempo. Had a good tempo run around LaVillita Lake. One mile of warmup followed by 2 miles of Tempo run in 16:00 and ending with a 1 mile cool down.

-Tuesday (8/19): We had our second ice skating class. Today it felt comfortable when I stepped on ice. We were taught to push on one leg and slide. Also, we were told how to do a skate towards back as well. I think we are getting the pushing part but not the back skating yet. Its time to practice it more.

-Wednesday (8/20): Track workout. Another great workout on the tracks at Ranchview High School. It was raining pretty hard in the evening and stopped just in time for our run. We did 4x800m intervals with 1 mile warm up and cool down.

-Thursaday (8/21): Bike ride. I had a nice bike ride on Campion Trail along with Cnu for about 13 miles. I was ale to average ~14 miles/hr. It is a great feeling after the bike ride, I feel my legs so really stretched and relaxed.

-Friday (8/22): 8 mile long run. As I was taking weekend off, I decided to run my long run on friday morning. I started off at 6:30 and had a great difficulty for the first 3 miles. My legs were not warming up and I was feeling terrible. I was walking every few minutes and took ~40mins for the first 3 miles. I started feeling a little better and ran the next few miles in 10-11 min pace, without much breaks. After 5 miles or so I felt great and was running close to 8min pace and finished strong.

Week-6 (8/11-8/17)

-Monday (8/11): I went to Texins Gym after more than a year as it was raining this evening. I did a 3 mile run with 1 mile @ 8:00 tempo pace. I was also able to do some strength exercises after a long time.

-Tuesday (8/12): We had our first Ice skating class at Dallas Galleria. We were first taught to fall and get up on ice and then to walk and glide on ice. It was a good first class and the instructor was impressed with all of us as we were able to walk quite well by the end of the class. Now, we just need to practice 3-4 times a week and get better.

-Wednesday (8/13): Track workout at Ranchview High School. Another good showing by Irving runners as 10 of us had a good track workout. We did intervals of 400m,600m,800m,600m,400m with 200m walk breaks in between laps.

-Saturday (8/16): 9 mile whiterock lake loop. Had a great run around the lake along with DRC. The weather was amazingly perfect, overcast in low 70s at the start with some wind. Sunil and myself ran all the 9 miles together and we did a consistent 9:30 pace (without including breaks) and had a strong finish. Sravanthi did 6+ miles for the first time and she was really tired. She walked the last few miles, but importantly was able to push herself beyond 6 miles. Also, there was a good showing of Asha runners for this run.

-Sunday (8/17): 10mile bike ride. I finally got my bike ready on saturday, with the help of Sravanthi. On sunday morning, while my parents went out for their morning walk, I went for a 10 miles bike ride after a long time. I have been waiting for this day for the last 2 months and here it came. Now I just need to keep this momentum and ride atleast 2 days a week. This week was good, 3 runs, 1 bike ride and 1 ice skating session.

Week-5 (8/4-8/10)

-Monday (8/4): Dallas is in the midst of a heat wave and temperatures are in ~105F with head index ~110F. Most of the team did a indoor run on treadmills. I did a tempo run around La Villita Lake. 1 mile warm up followed by 2x1mile Tempo (7:24 & 8:00) and finishing it off with a 1 mile cool down.

-Wednesday (8/6): We had a good track work out at Ranchview High School. We changed the workout a little and did 4x600m repeats, with 200m of walk between laps. I ended up doing 5x600m and averaged 2:36 for each interval.

-Saturday (8/9): Its a 6 miler for this week but since we lost our way a little, we ended up doing 6.5 miles and had a strong finish in about 1hr. I took almost 3 miles to fully warm up. Another good week of running, but no cross-training:( I am waiting to get my tires fixed on my bike and plan to do at least 2 bike rides per week as cross-training. Also, we start going to ice skating classes from next week.

Week-4 (7/28-8/3)

-Monday 07/28: Hill workout in Valley Ranch, Irving. 10 of us had a great workout. We started off with 1 mile warm up, followed by 6 repeats of a short hill (0.1mi, ~100ft). We finished it off with a 1 mile cool down.

-Wednesday 07/30: Track workout at Ranchview High School, Irving. Another tough and fun workout on the track. 11 people showed up and we did 6x400 tracks with a mile of warm up and cool down. The weather was great as we had light drizzle for most of the run and had the pleasure of seeing 2 semi-circle rainbows. That was a pleasure and I wished I had my camera.

-Thursday 07/31: An easy 4 miler at La Villita Lake.

-Friday 08/01: Ice skating at Dallas Galleria. Our second try at ice skating and it was lot of fun. I managed to do 10 laps and Sravanthi did 6, without falling even once! This can very well be a good cross-training workout if we manage to learn. I can't wait to start our classes in 2 weeks.

-Saturday 08/02: Whiterock Lake loop from Winfrey Point. Ran with DRC group for ~9 miles at 10 min/mile pace. Around 20 Team Asha runners showed up for this hot run in the upper 80s and some humidity. We had amazing breakfast following the run, thanks to DRC coaches who were kind enough to get some bagels and fluids. I loved having chocolate milk after the run.

To sumarize, great start to the training, especially Irving folks of Team Asha. They are a motivated bunch and have amazing spirit.
Go Team Asha.

2008 Team Asha Dallas: Week-3 (07/21-07/27)

Full and Half marathon training with DRC started on 12th July. Details of the training program are here.
-Full-marathon schedule calls for 23 weeks of training
-Half-Marathon schedule calls for either 17/23 weeks of training , depending on if one is training for DRC Half or Whiterock Half.

- Unfortunately I missed almost 2 weeks of training. DRC groups meet on Saturday AMs for long runs and Wednesday PMs for Hill/Tempo/Interval runs.

- My first run with DRC was on 26th July and I joined the Full 9:30-10 pace group. It was a nice feeling to run with a large group again after so long. My first experience of running with a big group was with Team Asha SV in 2004. The big group made the 6 mile run quite easier, except for the slight hills towards the end of the run.

- There were quite a few Team Asha Dallas runners in various pace groups of DRC and we all met up after the run, stretched well and went for a nice breakfast at Einstein Bagels as always.

Big-D 5K: First race of 2008

This is the race that got us all started with Team Asha Dallas. Last year on April 1st, ~15 of us trained and ran 5K/Half at Big-D race along with a bunch of Asha Austin runners. People were excited after this run and they never looked back. To keep the tradition going ~10 of us ran 5K on April 6th.
Luckily this year there was no traffic and we all were able to reach the start in time. I have never raced a 5K before and I wanted to give it all and see how fast can i go. I have warmed up well for about 10mins and was ready to start. I started off the first mile pretty strong and soon realized that I did a 7:11 min pace. I was happy about the pace but also worried that I will not be able to keep the pace as it felt hard. I managed to do the second mile in 7:24 but had to slow down to 7:40 for the third and ended up with 22:58 for 5K. I was really happy with the time, given that I hardly trained for a time.
It was nice to see newbies finish 5K in style including my good friend Sreenivas. He was not sure if he would finish this distance and now after 2 months he already ran 9 miles. he is currently training for half marathon. There were several new runners Sri, Laxmi, Divi apart from Sreenivas.

Ice Skating as cross training?

Last night we had an opportunity to test out Ice skating at
Dallas Galleria, thanks to my fellow Asha runner. We were almost 10 people from Team Asha. We were on the ice for about an hour and it was tiring. Initially, I was apprehensive especially after hearing to my wife, who started to freak out a little, but started to walk a little in about 10-15mins. I did manage to walk the first 4 laps next to the railing and only fell once! I got a little confident and started to walk/skate in the middle and managed almost 3 laps without falling or even holding to the rail. All in all I was very happy with my experience, considering this is the first time I stepped on ice. A few of us got excited and registered for classes for next month. I guess, ice skating will be an official cross training workout for Team Asha :)

Team Asha Marathon 2008

It has been a while since I posted on my blog. We have started our official Team Asha Dallas Marathon program on 12th July. We are training with Dallas Running Club (DRC) this year and we plan to run the Dallas Whiterock Marathon on 14th Dec 2008. We have been running unofficially with a bunch of people for the last 2 months and the response has been great. We got ~10-15 new runners and we already have ~30 runners doing the Asha marathon program this year. It is very encouraging to see new and enthusiastic runners. I have a feeling that we will have a very successful program this year, the second year in Dallas. I shall keep posting my progress and also that of our team in the blog from time to time.
On a personal note, my wife Sravanthi has also registered with Team Asha to be part of relay marathon and help the cause. Also, I want to train well this year and break the 4-hr barrier and get a PR for myself, all the while raising much needed funds for children in India.
Go Team Asha!

Big-D Half: My best race to date

I got my PR today and beat my old time by a mile, literally! I shaved off ~8mins from 1:53 to 1:44:40. It was an interesting day with a few ups and downs. The "up" was the fact that I could a few PRs for 5K, 10K and Half. The "down" was all the mess that was created due to the traffic jam at the start and also due to the fact that my car battery died soon after the race. Also, my official race time is ~2:20. as there was no chip timing anymore at the start when we started, approx 35mins late.

It all started when I woke up at 6:06am. I set the alarm but somehow forgot to turn it on, duh! I quickly got ready and went to pick up Avani and Viswanath. We almost reach the Cotton Bowl area at 6:50am and about 1/2 mile from the exit to the race area, there was a big traffic jam and we were stuck. We saw people walking off the freeway and I followed as the Half start is at 7:30. I came to know that many of the other ADR folks and also Asha Austin folks were also stuck in the other direction of I-30. The race was officially delayed by15mins and we waited for all the folks to show up and started finally at 8:20am. We were all disappointed to find out that the chip timing system at the start line was switched off by the time we started, which means that our chip times won't be accurate and will be the same as gun time, which is the official clock. We started Half roughly 35mins behind the official start. I am not sure when the 5Kers started.

There were about 10 of us who started the Half, 3 from Dallas and the rest from Austin. Ramesh and myself started off at a good pace and took off. I was pacing and before I knew it, the first mile marker came by and we were on a blazing pace of 7:45, wow! I felt good but at the same time was worried whether I can sustain that pace. I slowed a little but was still doing roughly 8 min pace. I saw that Ramesh was taking it a little easy, but I did not want to change my pace as I felt a good rhythm. I maintained that pace and 5K went by in 24:50 (which is a PR since I never ran a 5K) and then next up was 10K in 49:52 (another PR by 3 mins!). I still felt good and was decently confident that I can maintain that pace for the second half as well. Then I realized, that if I maintain an even split, I have a shot at 1:45!! (5 mins faster than my stretch goal of 1:50). I was drinking at every aid station and was pouring water on myself which felt so good. Miles 9-11 had the best scenery as we were passing through the multi-million dollar homes of Highland park, which is the most expensive area in Dallas. To my surprise, I was still doing better than 8:00min pace and I was on pace for a 1:45 finish. In mile 13, about quarter mile from the finish I saw ADR folks, including Deepa, Kavitha, Viswanath et al and I just took off and before I knew it the saw the finish line and finished strong which is something I always love in a race. When I stopped my watch at the finish line, it read 1:44:40!! yes, I did it, it was an amazing feeling. I believe this is the first time I not only met my time goal but indeed beat it. I guess it helps to be ~6-7 lbs lighter :)

I got my medal and got some fluids and came back to see others finish. Ramesh had a strong finish and did 1:51, which is the same as his PR. I saw few of the Austin folks finish the next 10-15 mins. Then I met up with other ADR folks and we were cheering and waiting for the rest of folks to showup. Ravi had a strong finish and made it in 2:32. The whole group took some pictures and it was fun. All the 5Kers had a good race and some even did 10K as they were lost on the course:) Many of us decided to have lunch and just when you think the day has gotten better, I realize that my car battery was down and it does not start. Luckily, there was a gentleman in his truck who helped us out and we reached Roti Grill and had good food. It was almost 3pm by the time we reached home. In effect, it was a mixed day for me, but I had a great race, in fact the best race to date! I cannot wait for my next race, which may not happen for another couple of months.

I am off to India for couple of months, on business. I will be working from Bangalore and hopefully I can do couple of races over there. I am hoping that I will have some running experiences in B'lore that I would write here, from time to time. I shall write the next time from India in about a week's time.